Determining genre
From NEC Retro
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(written very quickly)
Unlike some video game companies (such as Sega; see: Sega Retro's take on "determining genre"), NEC did not employ hard and fast rules when it came to determining a game's genre. As such, NEC Retro uses the de facto genre system in Japan, with many caveats and exceptions depending on how third-parties classified their own games:
| Name | Rough description | Classic examples |
|---|---|---|
| Action | A catch-all category for games with a lot of real-time gameplay, but which can't be easily aligned with real-world events. |
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| Adventure | Text-based or point-and-click adventure games, usually narrative-driven. |
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| Educational | Games designed primarily to teach concepts rather than general entertainment. |
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| Puzzle | Games which predominantly feature puzzle solving. |
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| Racing | Games that involve travelling towards a goal in the quickest possible time. |
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| RPG | Games which feature characters who progress over time. |
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| Shoot-'em-Up (Shooting) | Games which involve firing projectiles at targets. |
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| Sports | Games which attempt to emulate real-world sports (or similar). |
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| Simulation | Games that attempt to simulate things. In Japan this definition also includes "strategy" games. |
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| Table | Card or board games. This designation typically isn't used outside of Japan. |
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This system pre-dates many gameplay concepts and there have not been universally accepted rules on how to deal with certain titles. For example:
- Prior to the release of Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991, "fighting games" would have been classed as "action", however an explosion in popularity in the 1990s often led to these games being treated as part of a separate genre.
- Doom is credited with popularising the first person shooter, something not possible until gaming hardware was able to render complex 3D graphics in real-time. First and third-person shooters are noticeably different from once-dominating 2D side-scrolling shooters (typically set in space), but the genre has never been as popular in Japan as in the West.
- Genres often overlap. The Legend of Zelda is typically described as an "action RPG". Football Manager is both a sports game, and a simulation.
- Some games do not fit nearly into any category, and so are marked as "miscellaneous" (or "etc"). Game compilations are are classified separately.